Wednesday, February 25, 2015
By James Forsyth for The Mail on Sunday
Published: 01:19 GMT, 9 November 2014 | Updated: 08:37 GMT, 9 November 2014
/ABS/Auto%20Blog%20Samurai/data/VeraLPoker/James%20Forsyth/)
A new poll has revealed that Labour leader Ed Miliband is an election liability
Disunity is damaging, it is punished,’ fumes one Ed Miliband loyalist about the Labour Party’s very public cry of pain about its leader – and his deficiencies – over the past few days. Today’s Mail on Sunday poll – a devastating indictment of Ed Miliband’s leadership – will do nothing to calm their nerves.
Loyalists are seriously worried that more MPs will break cover this week, not just to voice their criticism of a man Simon Danczuk describes in this newspaper as a personality- free leader, but explicitly to call for him to go.
Team Miliband admit that they have been taken by surprise by how quickly this story has, in the words of one, ‘just exploded’. But, privately, they say: ‘There has been a lot of discontent and unrest for a while,’ which has got worse since Miliband’s disastrous conference speech.
The source of this discontent? Self-preservation. There is an increasing fear among Labour MPs that they are going to lose the General Election in May. They used to think they would probably make it over the line. Now, they fear disaster.
One influential Labour frontbencher says of those manoeuvring against Miliband: ‘What unites them is a determination to keep their seats.’
To say the Labour mood is grim is an understatement.
One former chief whip told David Watts, chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, on Wednesday that it was the worst they had known it in their time in politics – and that included Michael Foot’s leadership.
Tellingly, in private, few try to defend Miliband’s leadership on its merits. Instead Shadow Cabinet members argue that it would be ‘insanity’ to try to change the leader just six months away from a General Election.
But that’s not likely to be much comfort to Miliband. He will recall that the last attempt to oust Gordon Brown as Labour leader took place just four months before the 2010 election.
One consolation for him is that, with Lucy Powell taking charge of the day-to-day running of the Election campaign, he has someone who is tough, a political street fighter and totally loyal to him in that job. It was Powell who guided Miliband to leadership victory against his brother.
But several influential figures normally supportive of Miliband cite her appointment as proof he has retreated into ‘bunker mode’. There is a recognition among Labour’s top brass that they need to spread the load more broadly, that Miliband can’t – and won’t – carry the country on his own.
But, revealingly, those who the leadership are most keen to push forward are the younger, fresher faces, not the more established Shadow Cabinet members.
Expect to see a lot more of Gloria Del Piero, Liz Kendall, Rachel Reeves, Chuka Umunna, Tristram Hunt and Powell on your TVs.
The Labour leadership are keen to push forward younger, fresher faces such as Gloria Del Piero, Rachel Reeves and Tristram Hunt, pictured
In an attempt to jiu-jitsu the Tories on the economy, Miliband will return to a favourite theme: that their recovery is leaving most people behind. One of his team says of the Tories: ‘What they think is their greatest strength is their greatest weakness.’
They will also manoeuvre their guns for an assault on Ukip. They will accuse the party of peddling false hope. But there will also be a concerted effort to shore up Labour’s own position on immigration, to show you don’t have to vote Ukip to get a party serious about controlling it.
But will this really be enough to get Labour – and its leader – back on track? Well, the worry for Labour is that public opinion is hardening against their leader regardless of what he does. Ironically, Miliband the radical, the man who wants to break the Thatcher-Blair political consensus of the past 30 years, has come to be seen as the embodiment of a loathed political Establishment.
However, his position for now is almost certainly safe because there’s no one available who’d do better. One dejected Labour campaigner remarks: ‘If you are in a car with a driver heading towards a cliff but none of the passengers can drive, do you take the wheel away from the driver?’
Handbags at dawn as Liz takes on Europe
It will be a bit like old times in Brussels tomorrow. A British politician will turn up, armed with her handbag, determined to tell Brussels bureaucrats not to be quite so bossy.
Environment Secretary Liz Truss wants to stop the European Commission from telling British farmers what they can grow.
A new Commission edict, ‘the three crop rule’, will force more than a quarter of British arable farms to change their business model when it comes into effect next year.
This will hit hard an industry that is worth a hundred billion pounds to the UK economy.
But it remains to be seen whether Truss’s three-year- old Karen Millen handbag packs the same punch as Baroness Thatcher’s famous black Launer.
Environment Secretary Liz Truss with her trust Karen Millen tote bag
The Quad – the Government’s decision-making body – has held its first meeting to thrash out the Autumn Statement on December 3, one of the Coalition’s last chances to do anything.
But with just six months to go to the Election, achieving consensus is difficult. One insider says: ‘At this stage, it has to be things both sides strongly support to get agreement on.’
This is one of the reasons why it won’t seem like a typical pre-Election financial statement – there’ll be no rabbits out of hats.
Instead, I understand George Osborne and Nick Clegg have agreed on boosting the North. So, expect more devolution to northern cities and big upgrades to the region’s rail and road networks.
Sorry, no trendies at Nicky's college
The Government is to set up a ‘College of Teaching’.
The body is designed to give teaching a proper professional body, and will be both independent of Government and distinct from the teaching unions and their political agenda.
Education Secretary Nicky Morgan says in the long run she wants this ‘independent professional body’ to be owned and financed by the teaching profession itself. She argues that it will help improve the quality of teaching in this country.
The idea of a Royal College of Teaching has long been championed by the Tory backbencher Charlotte Leslie.
Morgan’s decision to embrace it is the latest part of her effort to make nice with the profession. However, the real challenge is to stop the college from being captured by trendy educationalists.
It must be a body that promotes genuinely world-class teaching, not one that just defends the interests of teachers regardless of how good they are at their job.
Quotes of the week
‘He doesn’t understand the lower middle class or material aspiration. He doesn’t understand Essex man.’
Jason Cowley, editor of New Statesman, writes a withering analysis of Ed Miliband.
‘Ill-informed commentators may scoff, but those of us involved in the criminal justice system know that deterrence will almost always be a factor in the naming of those involved in offences such as this.’
Mr Justice Coulson defends his decision to allow the media to name Will Cornick, the 16-year-old who murdered teacher Ann Maguire.
‘My client does not hire Irish people due to the alcoholism nature of your kind.’
Sophie Hunter, the wife to be of actor Benedict Cumberbatch
A South Korean recruitment agency to Katie Mulrennan, of County Kerry, when she applied for a job in Seoul.
‘He was a guitarist who was only interested in his own solos while the rest of the band was trying to play a close harmony number.’
Tory MP Damian Green gives his view of why increasing tensions led Lib Dem Norman Baker to resign from the Home Office.
'I hope Sophie Hunter realises she is crushing girls' hearts all over the world by having Benedict all to herself.'
Twitter reacts to news that actor Benedict Cumberbatch is to marry his girlfriend
‘Looking for silliness in the writing of Russell Brand is like looking for hay in a haystack.’
Literary journalist David Sexton adds to the chorus of derision in response to the comedian’s political manifesto, Revolution.
‘If you look at people who are immensely productive, they don’t seem to have done much fathering or mothering. I mean, you can’t imagine Picasso taking the afternoon off to take the kids for a picnic?’
John Cleese defends his lack of effort as a father by arguing that it is a hallmark of genius.
‘The nadir of Western civilisation.’
An unnamed listener who heard footballer Wayne Rooney perform an impromptu duet with singer Ed Sheeran in a Manchester pub.
Beyonce, who Tory feminist Esther McVey says is a good role model for young women
‘What I like to see is people like Beyoncé. Here is a woman who is bling-a-ding.’
Tory feminist Esther McVey MP says that the provocative singer makes a good role model for young women.
window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({mode: 'autosized-generated-text-under-1r-' + 'row', container: 'taboola-below-main-column', placement: 'wide'}); _taboola.push({flush:true}); var rcShoutCache = '{}'; window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({flush:true});
Published: 01:19 GMT, 9 November 2014 | Updated: 08:37 GMT, 9 November 2014
Disunity is damaging, it is punished,’ fumes one Ed Miliband loyalist about the Labour Party’s very public cry of pain about its leader – and his deficiencies – over the past few days. Today’s Mail on Sunday poll – a devastating indictment of Ed Miliband’s leadership – will do nothing to calm their nerves.
Loyalists are seriously worried that more MPs will break cover this week, not just to voice their criticism of a man Simon Danczuk describes in this newspaper as a personality- free leader, but explicitly to call for him to go.
Team Miliband admit that they have been taken by surprise by how quickly this story has, in the words of one, ‘just exploded’. But, privately, they say: ‘There has been a lot of discontent and unrest for a while,’ which has got worse since Miliband’s disastrous conference speech.
The source of this discontent? Self-preservation. There is an increasing fear among Labour MPs that they are going to lose the General Election in May. They used to think they would probably make it over the line. Now, they fear disaster.
One influential Labour frontbencher says of those manoeuvring against Miliband: ‘What unites them is a determination to keep their seats.’
To say the Labour mood is grim is an understatement.
One former chief whip told David Watts, chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, on Wednesday that it was the worst they had known it in their time in politics – and that included Michael Foot’s leadership.
Tellingly, in private, few try to defend Miliband’s leadership on its merits. Instead Shadow Cabinet members argue that it would be ‘insanity’ to try to change the leader just six months away from a General Election.
But that’s not likely to be much comfort to Miliband. He will recall that the last attempt to oust Gordon Brown as Labour leader took place just four months before the 2010 election.
One consolation for him is that, with Lucy Powell taking charge of the day-to-day running of the Election campaign, he has someone who is tough, a political street fighter and totally loyal to him in that job. It was Powell who guided Miliband to leadership victory against his brother.
But several influential figures normally supportive of Miliband cite her appointment as proof he has retreated into ‘bunker mode’. There is a recognition among Labour’s top brass that they need to spread the load more broadly, that Miliband can’t – and won’t – carry the country on his own.
But, revealingly, those who the leadership are most keen to push forward are the younger, fresher faces, not the more established Shadow Cabinet members.
Expect to see a lot more of Gloria Del Piero, Liz Kendall, Rachel Reeves, Chuka Umunna, Tristram Hunt and Powell on your TVs.
In an attempt to jiu-jitsu the Tories on the economy, Miliband will return to a favourite theme: that their recovery is leaving most people behind. One of his team says of the Tories: ‘What they think is their greatest strength is their greatest weakness.’
They will also manoeuvre their guns for an assault on Ukip. They will accuse the party of peddling false hope. But there will also be a concerted effort to shore up Labour’s own position on immigration, to show you don’t have to vote Ukip to get a party serious about controlling it.
But will this really be enough to get Labour – and its leader – back on track? Well, the worry for Labour is that public opinion is hardening against their leader regardless of what he does. Ironically, Miliband the radical, the man who wants to break the Thatcher-Blair political consensus of the past 30 years, has come to be seen as the embodiment of a loathed political Establishment.
However, his position for now is almost certainly safe because there’s no one available who’d do better. One dejected Labour campaigner remarks: ‘If you are in a car with a driver heading towards a cliff but none of the passengers can drive, do you take the wheel away from the driver?’
Handbags at dawn as Liz takes on Europe
It will be a bit like old times in Brussels tomorrow. A British politician will turn up, armed with her handbag, determined to tell Brussels bureaucrats not to be quite so bossy.
Environment Secretary Liz Truss wants to stop the European Commission from telling British farmers what they can grow.
A new Commission edict, ‘the three crop rule’, will force more than a quarter of British arable farms to change their business model when it comes into effect next year.
This will hit hard an industry that is worth a hundred billion pounds to the UK economy.
But it remains to be seen whether Truss’s three-year- old Karen Millen handbag packs the same punch as Baroness Thatcher’s famous black Launer.
Environment Secretary Liz Truss with her trust Karen Millen tote bag The Quad – the Government’s decision-making body – has held its first meeting to thrash out the Autumn Statement on December 3, one of the Coalition’s last chances to do anything.
But with just six months to go to the Election, achieving consensus is difficult. One insider says: ‘At this stage, it has to be things both sides strongly support to get agreement on.’
This is one of the reasons why it won’t seem like a typical pre-Election financial statement – there’ll be no rabbits out of hats.
Instead, I understand George Osborne and Nick Clegg have agreed on boosting the North. So, expect more devolution to northern cities and big upgrades to the region’s rail and road networks.
Sorry, no trendies at Nicky's college
The Government is to set up a ‘College of Teaching’.
The body is designed to give teaching a proper professional body, and will be both independent of Government and distinct from the teaching unions and their political agenda.
Education Secretary Nicky Morgan says in the long run she wants this ‘independent professional body’ to be owned and financed by the teaching profession itself. She argues that it will help improve the quality of teaching in this country.
The idea of a Royal College of Teaching has long been championed by the Tory backbencher Charlotte Leslie.
Morgan’s decision to embrace it is the latest part of her effort to make nice with the profession. However, the real challenge is to stop the college from being captured by trendy educationalists.
It must be a body that promotes genuinely world-class teaching, not one that just defends the interests of teachers regardless of how good they are at their job.
Quotes of the week
‘He doesn’t understand the lower middle class or material aspiration. He doesn’t understand Essex man.’
Jason Cowley, editor of New Statesman, writes a withering analysis of Ed Miliband.
‘Ill-informed commentators may scoff, but those of us involved in the criminal justice system know that deterrence will almost always be a factor in the naming of those involved in offences such as this.’
Mr Justice Coulson defends his decision to allow the media to name Will Cornick, the 16-year-old who murdered teacher Ann Maguire.
‘My client does not hire Irish people due to the alcoholism nature of your kind.’
A South Korean recruitment agency to Katie Mulrennan, of County Kerry, when she applied for a job in Seoul.
‘He was a guitarist who was only interested in his own solos while the rest of the band was trying to play a close harmony number.’
Tory MP Damian Green gives his view of why increasing tensions led Lib Dem Norman Baker to resign from the Home Office.
'I hope Sophie Hunter realises she is crushing girls' hearts all over the world by having Benedict all to herself.'
Twitter reacts to news that actor Benedict Cumberbatch is to marry his girlfriend
‘Looking for silliness in the writing of Russell Brand is like looking for hay in a haystack.’
Literary journalist David Sexton adds to the chorus of derision in response to the comedian’s political manifesto, Revolution.
‘If you look at people who are immensely productive, they don’t seem to have done much fathering or mothering. I mean, you can’t imagine Picasso taking the afternoon off to take the kids for a picnic?’
John Cleese defends his lack of effort as a father by arguing that it is a hallmark of genius.
‘The nadir of Western civilisation.’
An unnamed listener who heard footballer Wayne Rooney perform an impromptu duet with singer Ed Sheeran in a Manchester pub.
‘What I like to see is people like Beyoncé. Here is a woman who is bling-a-ding.’
Tory feminist Esther McVey MP says that the provocative singer makes a good role model for young women.
window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({mode: 'autosized-generated-text-under-1r-' + 'row', container: 'taboola-below-main-column', placement: 'wide'}); _taboola.push({flush:true}); var rcShoutCache = '{}'; window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({flush:true});
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Kara Scott
2nd World Rank
Final Table WSOP
World Series Of Poker
0 comments:
Post a Comment